Hope for Cairns FIFO hub push to continue

The Cairns fly-in, fly-out (FIFO) project coordinator says he hopes there will be continued momentum in positioning far north Queensland as a hub for FIFO workers.

The two-year initiative funded by the Federal Government has promoted the region to the resources sector, and officially wraps up this month.

Coordinator Jeremy Blockey says about 500 new Cairns-based FIFO jobs have been created during the life of the project.

"So that growth of 250 people with their average wages they'd be drawing translates into roughly $33 million in income, with obviously some flow-on effects through the economy," he said.

"On top of that we now have the extra 250 BMA workers being recruited."

He says Rio Tinto Alcan's South of Embley project at Weipa, MMG's Dugald River project and Inpex's project at Darwin could be key sources of employment for the Cairns workforce.

"The other major element is tapping up into the PNG market," he said.

"My role as the FIFO coordinator was purely about skills shortages in Australia but we always saw the synergies with what's happening up in PNG being very much integral with what's happening with our FIFO capability and so we're looking to expand upon that and include the PNG market."